Santa Clarita band Full Safari invites public into the wild for inaugural festival

Dozens of fans crammed into mosh pits and wandered through a gala of artwork by Santa Clarita artists, during Full Safari’s Inaugural Music and Arts Festival.

Tucked into the tract homes of a Valencia neighborhood, Santa Clarita band Full Safari brought together numerous artists to showcase their work in front of fans at the North Park Clubhouse.

The band played at the festival as well, making it their latest show after several other live gigs around the greater Los Angeles area.

But it was a challenge organizing their own festival.

“It’s very hard,” said Joey Voge, a singer and guitarist for Full Safari. “Our approach towards it is to do the best we can in both areas. We actually put more time and planning into our practices. It usually takes some time in advance for us to all get together, to work with our schedules … (to) have the same mentality.”

So why did the four 19 to 20 year old guys in Full Safari take on managing an event while playing at it? Voge explained he wanted to draw more artists together in Santa Clarita.

“What we decided to do is focus more on the local aspect,” Voge said. “It was pretty much up to us to create anything really, so I decided with my band that we should have our own show, we should rent out a space and have and have a bunch of people come for the benefit of Santa Clarita arts and culture, so here we are … $700 later.”

The clubhouse that Full Safari rented out provided a space for many artists to not only show off their work and talents, but also connect with their audience.

“I’m trying to look, to find, the relations out there that people understand in my music.” said James Sklena, whose band Good Whales played at the festival. “I don’t want to be the only soul in the world.”

For some artists, it was the first time they met face to face with people examining their work.

“Having it be in front of people, and seeing what they have to say is kind of nerve wracking,” said Samira Asghari, who had paintings on display at the festival. “(But) you can’t really grow as an artist unless you get other people’s opinions or other people’s reactions because then you just don’t really know if what you’re doing is working.”

For Voge, the band’s transition to coordinating events helped them grow into a new entity in Santa Clarita.

“I did not see myself in this position because I planned on riding the coattails of other bands to get us to higher spots with bigger crowds, to get a larger fan base and stuff like that,” said Voge. “But the more I get into the industry, the more I realize nobody cares about us, except for our friend who we are blessed to have around us today.”

Ed. note: The video featured above was a production of the Four Horsemen Production group from College of the Canyons MEA 111 class.